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Aged care provider pilots cross-cultural exchange

on Monday, May 19, 2014

A Victorian aged care organisation has sent eight of its staff on a two week trip to Changchun to exchange industry best practice with the Chinese.

The scholarship winners, comprising nurses, carers and managers, set off on Saturday, piloting cross-cultural exchange within Southern Cross Care (Vic).

They will spend time at Changchun Medical University and Be Loved Nursing Home to gain new insights into aged care, as well as visit a Chinese person’s home to learn about alternative community care practices.

Southern Cross (Vic) senior strategic consultant and registered nurse Cath Evans said the group will be taking documentation, knowledge and experience on quality improvement processes, palliation and pain management.

They will also share video examples of new dementia-friendly building designs so their hosts can get an idea of what a contemporary facility looks like in Australia.

“I’m hoping there will be a genuine exchange so we can come away with some valuable insight into the aged care industry in China and exchange some information in terms of our best practices in delivering care,” Ms Evans said.

Ms Evans said 67 per cent of Southern Cross (Vic) residents come from culturally diverse backgrounds, with a particularly large Chinese presence at the Springvale home.

“Residents from Asia are often wonderfully looked after by their families at home, so one of the great challenges is for the family to accept their loved one is going into care.

"Another is helping the resident understand something that is really quite alien to their culture,” she said.

“In order to make someone comfortable in aged care and understand their needs, it is very important to actually visit other countries and see how things are done there.”

Southern Cross Care (Vic) deputy CEO Ian Barton, who is accompanying the study group, said China’s one child policy over the past few decades has meant that a family member is not always around to take care of their ageing parents.

Mr Barton said that with their booming economy and life expectancy rising, China now faces the same challenge as Australia in taking care of an ageing population.

“Aged care is still in its infancy in China. As an organisation, we decided we could make a contribution there and needed to be involved to improve the quality of aged care in a developing country,” he said.

A return trip to Australia by a Chinese delegation from the university is currently being planned for 2015.

Image: The scholarship winners at their congratulation ceremony. CONTRIBUTED.

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